Sophie Rivers has left the turmoil of her inner-city college to take an MEd course at the University of the West Midlands. But she's getting nowhere with the group of South-East Asian students she's supposed to be helping. She confides in the excellent lecturer Carla Pentowski but there's something strange about Carla's past - or lack of it. When some of her students start behaving oddly Sophie talks to her old friend Superintendent Chris Groom. But he has news of his own: the death on his patch of first one Malay girl then another. Then Carla disappears…

Part of the A Sophie Rivers Mystery series.